


the girl in the woods

by wolfwithpanthereyes



Category: Les Misérables - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - The Witcher Fusion, Destiny, Fantasy, Gen, Non-Linear Narrative, The Law of Surprise (The Witcher)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-28
Updated: 2020-04-28
Packaged: 2021-03-02 04:40:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,374
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23889118
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wolfwithpanthereyes/pseuds/wolfwithpanthereyes
Summary: The Devil of Digne, they call him after.Or, the Witcher crossover where Jean Valjean shares a destiny with the girl in the woods.
Relationships: Charles-François-Bienvenu Myriel & Jean Valjean, Cosette Fauchelevent & Jean Valjean, Fantine & Jean Valjean
Comments: 5
Kudos: 20





	the girl in the woods

There is a girl in the woods. She is alone and she is lonely and she has a destiny.

This last she is not yet aware of, but she will be soon.

\----

Digne is an easy contract. A flurry of ghouls in the local cemetery - an oddly large amount for such a small village, but on sighting them Valjean downs a potion from his belt and deals with them swiftly and efficiently. No more than half an hour later he’s limping back to the glowing lights of the tavern. 

The innkeeper refuses him entry. 

It’s an old story, one Valjean has had to live through many times. Witchers are wonderful hires in times of desperation and immediately shunned once the threat has been dispersed with. Stranded outside Digne’s only inn, outside the only available spare beds for miles, the purse of coin thrust towards him for his troubles may as well weigh nothing at all. 

They say Witchers cannot feel, but Valjean is angry. 

\----

When Fantine was young, young and starry-eyed and in love with a man planning to betray her, she was saved by a Witcher. 

Félix had invited her to a secret rendezvous in the woods the night before, held her tight in his arms and kissed her and given her a scrap of paper as the first clue to where the rendezvous would take place. And Fantine, like most young women, was scared of the woods, but she loved Félix, and she trusted him when he murmured his love back. 

So she made her way into the woods, following the trail until it ended, only to find herself quite lost and Félix nowhere to be seen.

But she could not dwell on that just yet, because it was then the wolves arrived, and the Witcher behind them flashing his sword. 

After, shaking and her fine dress splattered with blood, she begs him to lead her home - something must have happened to Félix for him not to have been at their appointed spot in the woods, she must organise a search party - and he is even kind enough to lend her his horse. 

“Witcher, dear Witcher!” Fantine exclaims as the outskirts of Paris came into view, nearly collapsing against the mare’s neck in sweet relief. “What can I possibly give you as thanks?” 

Fantine does not possess much coin, nor does she have much finery outside of her gifts from her beloved - and surely she could not give those up, for what would Félix say? - but she is still surprised by the Witcher’s answer.

“I will not allow you to part with your coin, merely for being in the wrong place at the wrong time.” 

“But surely,” Fantine insists - she cannot allow her rescuer to go unrewarded, even if she has only little. “I must insist! I do not have much money, but...” 

And it is while Fantine goes quiet, trying to decide what might be suitable payment, the Witcher quietly asks: “are you familiar with the law of surprise?” 

\---

The Devil of Digne, they call him after. 

It is not a flattering epithet but it is, Valjean decides after much consideration, an honour to be associated with the bishop in any capacity. 

\---

Valjean returns to the cemetery - why not, now he has personally insured it is safe once more? 

His plan is to find a corner shaded from the chill night breeze, attend to the gash on his shin (he must work on his footwork, he should have seen that coming), and meditate until dawn. 

Instead there is a cry of “Good Witcher!” as he rests his hand on the heavy cemetery gate, and it is a phrase Valjean is so unaccustomed to hearing that it unsettles him.

“Good Witcher,” the bishop repeats - for it is the village bishop, his home being beside the cemetery - “the sisters I live with have prepared more food than I can eat, and we have a bed and coals to spare. May I have the honour of your company tonight?” 

“I would not wish to intrude,” Valjean says gruffly, but the bishop insists, and so Valjean wipes his hands as best he can on his breeches. 

The promise of a meal and bed is certainly better than rations and a cemetery corner. 

\---

In the dull candlelight, the mayor looks strikingly like her Witcher from all those years before. 

“My child,” Fantine murmurs, her voice guttural and hideous as she hacks back a cough. It is a wonder the mayor is letting her clutch his hand like this, like she is a small child herself clinging to her father. “Monsieur, my child…! You have promised to look after her, and I thank you most graciously, most wonderfully, but I… my darling Cosette has been promised to a Witcher. Could you-” 

The cough refuses to be held back, choking her and forcing her to spit blood upon the sheets. Dark and hot, like the wolf blood on her skirts all those years ago. 

“Fantine…” The mayor whispers, holding her name in his mouth like a prayer. 

“The Witcher was named Valjean," Fantine manages, and she is vaguely aware of a dabbing at her forehead from the nurse who has sat at her bedside since she was first brought in. “Please, monsieur, even if he… even if he does not want her, please let him know I have repaid his law in kind.” 

The mayor holds her hand, and he promises, and Fantine imagines his eyes flash gold in a flicker of candlelight. 

\---

When it was over… when it was inevitable to avoid crossing Digne without stepping in the blood Valjean had tried so hard not to spill.... the bishop gives him a gift. 

Valjean begs him to reconsider. He is no hero.

The bishop insists. 

The gift he gives is an amulet, dangling from a silver chain. The stone at its centre is darker than an emerald, and as Valjean reluctantly takes it his own medallion beats hard against his chest. 

“A glamour,” the bishop explains. “It is unfortunate we require these in our society, but it will help you live an honest man as opposed to a persecuted one.” He presses his hand to Valjean’s closed fist gently. “That is my condition for you, to live honestly and with forgiveness in your heart. For what else can we offer?”

The bishop tells him something else, too.

\---

When Valjean tries the amulet for the first time, it has been days since Digne. He is alone, sleeping rough in the woods, and when he crouches at the river to examine his face - eyes no longer slitted and yellow, skin as unscarred as the day he was born - he is not struck by the shame he expected. 

Valjean cries for the first time since he was a boy. When he leaves the woods, it is with the bishop’s amulet tucked tight against his chest.

\---

There is a girl in the woods. She is alone and she is lonely and she has a destiny.

“Cosette?” 

Cosette drops her bucket, but she does not scream as she might have expected. She is not alone in the woods after all - there is a man, tall, with hair as white as the freshly fallen snow around them and eyes like Éponine’s kittycat. 

Cosette should be scared, but when she trembles it is only from the cold. She tugs her shawl tighter around her shoulders and asks the obvious question. 

“Are - are you a Witcher?” 

“I am,” the man says, and he looks - he looks lost. Like Cosette. 

It makes Cosette bold, and that’s a new and exciting feeling in itself. 

“My name’s Cosette,” she announces, “but you knew that already. What’s yours?”

The Witcher crouches down. Even like this, he towers over her. Cosette only tucks her hands into her armpits.

“I’ve had a few different names,” he says, and his voice is gruff and soft all at once. “But once I was Valjean, and I think I might go by Valjean again. What do you think?”

\---

“The girl in the woods will be with you always,” the bishop tells Valjean, as Valjean clutches the amulet tight enough for his knuckles to whiten. “Go swiftly, good Witcher, and remember she is your destiny.”

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted over on [tumblr](https://afoxnamedmulder.tumblr.com/post/615557755922792448/rattles-tin-cup-like-a-panhandling-urchin), thank you to the anon who prompted this


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